DailyDirt: Swatting Is Not A Harmless Prank

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

What do people like to do with their free time? Most people probably enjoy doing normal things like reading, surfing the web, watching TV, playing sports, or playing video games. And then there are some who apparently like "swatting" -- a potentially deadly prank where phone hackers make emergency calls reporting violent crimes, life-threatening hostage situations, etc., while spoofing their caller IDs to make it seem like the calls are coming from their target's phone number. Unfortunately, for the targeted victims, this means heavily armed police SWAT teams descending on their homes, sometimes breaking down doors and bursting into their homes. Here are a few eye-opening stories about swatting. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: attacks, brian krebs, phone hacks, phreaking, police, prank, swat team, swatting


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    silverscarcat (profile), 24 Jul 2013 @ 4:06pm

    Man...

    When you said "Swatting" I assumed something else entirely.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2013 @ 5:12pm

    It's only funny...

    Not only is it a waste of money, the phrase "it's only funny until someone gets hurt" is obvious here. Prank calls are funny. Getting your door kicked in by cops isn't.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Zos (profile), 24 Jul 2013 @ 6:15pm

      Re: It's only funny...

      no one does it just for a lighthearted prank. swatting, like doxxing, is done as a message.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2013 @ 4:52am

        Re: Re: It's only funny...

        Kinda like, "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous, 28 Jul 2013 @ 11:40am

      Re: It's only funny...

      It's only funny...
      when it happens to somebody else. Then it's hilarious! LOL!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Paul Renault (profile), 24 Jul 2013 @ 5:15pm

    Re. Brian Krebs's swatting..

    ..in an interview, he talked about that swatting incident:
    He walked out to the SWAT team, showed them his ID, and said, "You may recall that I was over at your precinct a few weeks ago, and explained that I am a Internet Security Reporter and Researcher, and it's possible that at some time in the future, you may get a phone call reporting some incident that requires a SWAT team at my home..."

    The SWAT team managed to find the office that Brian had spoken to, his story checked out, they went away...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jake, 24 Jul 2013 @ 7:48pm

    I think this says something rather alarming about US law-enforcement. Most places respond to calls like these by dispatching two officers in a patrol car to find out what the hell's going on before having the tactical team smash someone's door down.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2013 @ 5:24am

      Re:

      When your whole culture has for 200 years and still does revolve around world domination and beat the hell out of anyone who disagrees with you it is not surprising that the same attitude is applied to mere private citizens when there is an disagreement.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Annonimus, 26 Jul 2013 @ 5:23am

      Re:

      In Serbia the two officers in a patrol car usually have an AK-47 in the trunk so that if there really is trouble they radio in for back up pull out the AK and go scout out the perimeter. Mind you they only do this when there is a criminal shootout going on. Anything less just gets a call to central and guns unholstered.

      This might be the reason why most criminals having a showdown in Serbia prefer to use bombs planted under cars and kidnapping and then shooting in the back of the head somewhere in the wilderness on their opponents.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    toyotabedzrock (profile), 24 Jul 2013 @ 11:59pm

    It is harmless unless your area hires thug swat teams who like to kill.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Uriel-238 (profile), 25 Jul 2013 @ 11:49am

    Yeah, swatting is terrorist action in that it's insurrectionist action. SWAT teams are resources that are too eagerly used, and can be trained on the innocent, and it's actually something of the responsibility of rebels and anarchists to exploit this until a better checks-and-balances system is put into place; until then SWAT guys are a tool too easily accessed for the power they wield.

    My condolences go out to the victims, and the poor dogs who are undoubtedly getting shot dead as standard procedure.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    The Painful Truth, 6 Mar 2014 @ 10:30am

    This is why we need mandatory death sentences for hackers and identity thieves.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.